16 GEOLOGY OF THE BLACK HILLS. 



posits but more especially in prospecting for gold. In regard to the dis- 

 coveries made, the words of General Custer may be quoted from his pre- 

 liminary report to the Department of Dakota : 



It will be understood that within the limits of the Black Hills we were almost 

 constantly marching, never halting at any one point for a longer period than one day, 

 except once, and that was near Harney's Peak, where we remained five days, most of 

 the command, however, being employed in operations during the halt. * * * 

 Enough, however, was determined to establish the fact that gold is distributed 

 throughout the extensive area within the Black Hills. Gold was obtained in numer- 

 ous localities in what are termed gulches. No discoveries, so far as I am aware, were 

 made of gold deposits in quartz, although there is every reason to believe that a more 

 thorough and extended search would have discovered it. No large nuggets were 

 found ; the examination, however, showed that a very even, if not a very rich, distri- 

 bution of gold is to be found throughout entire valleys. In other words, the " pros- 

 pecting" showed that, while the miner may not in one panful of earth find nuggets of 

 large size or deposits of astonishing richness, to be followed by days and weeks of 

 unrewarded labor, he may reasonably expect, in certain localities, to realize from every 

 panful of earth a handsome return for his labor. 



While I feel satisfied that gold in satisfactory quantities can be obtained in the 

 Black Hills, yet the hasty examination we were forced to make did not enable us to 

 determine in any satisfactory degree the richness or extent of the gold deposits in that 

 region. Seeking for gold was not one of the objects of this expedition, consequently 

 we were but illy prepared to institute or successfully prosecute a search for it even 

 after we beeame aware of its existence in the country. 



These reports of General Custer, correct in themselves, were magnified 

 and exaggerated by others until the sensitive imagination of western pros- 

 pectors and frontiersmen constructed for itself a region of riches and 

 wealth untold, awaiting only the reaping of the harvest. On the other 

 hand, it must be recorded that the presence of gold in the Hills, at least 

 in any quantity, was strongly denied by high scientific authority on the 

 ground of their supposed general structure, and also by members of the 

 expedition itself, who would be supposed to have had the opportunity 

 of practically testing the question. It is proper to mention, too, that the 

 existence of gold in this region was undoubtedly known long before 

 to the Indians and some of the old pioneers. The statement of Father de 

 Smet has often been quoted, and considerable reliance has been placed upon 

 what he said, but more imagined from what he left unsaid. Father de Smet 

 was born in Belgium in 1801, and early in life emigrated to this country, 

 entered the Order of the Society of Jesus, and became a missionary to the 



